Comments about ‘'Red' honey prompts state investigation’

The story about this as reported here in the Deseret News is COMPLETELY
different than the one I just saw reported on KUTV.

This story
mentions concerns about lead contamination and that the honey tastes terrible,
among other ominous overtones.

The KUTV story (admittedly not as
comprehensive) conveyed the idea that it was a harmless and quite good tasting
novelty. Something, they suggested, that might be counted as just another
quirky oddity of Utah.

Samhill: As a beekeeper I can tell you that this red stuff is not nessecarly
harmless. By definition it isn't even "Honey" as honey comes from
nectar from flowers not a sugar mixture made from candy. The beekeeping
community is angry about this. It ruined a good percentage of our honey crop.
It may also result in the loss of hives this next winter.

Did the person or persons who decided to "feed" the bees with Red dye
#40 really take a look at the damage of the entire industry in the area? Not to
mention the damage to a person who cannot ingest the red dye without some
serious consequence? Seriously lacking some brain cells there.

Daisy:It is not hummingbird feeders. That was ruled out sometime ago.
Tests show what it is and the person that did this reportably admitted to it.
It was not intentional from what I understand BUT someone taking a shortcut and
not realizing the consequences. Seems more like a novice mistake to me but even
a "Professional" (in this case someone with lots of hives) can be stupid
once in a while.

Well, they took my comments
a bit out of context. I actually downplayed the lead issue, I said it is
something that should be looked at but that no one knew if it was an issue, and
I never said that these bee keepers fed their bees in a trough. They asked me
how pit feeding worked and I simply told them how it was traditionally done, and
not specifically done in this instance. I also said that to my knowledge none of
the red stuff ever made it into the food supply.

I personally think
this is a testament to the bee keeping community that we came together to find a
solution and I am urging extreme compassion for anyone involved in the feeding
of candy syrup to the bees. The beekeepers alleged to be involved are super nice
people and I do not believe they intended any harm to anyone, and as of yet it
has not been determined exactly what harm may have been done.